A group of Cubans upset with Rep. Mario Diaz Balart’s legislation, which aims to roll back Obama’s Cuba travel concessions to the Castro regime, assembled at the congressman’s office yesterday to protest the proposed legislation and deliver a letter of protest. The protesters were met by counter-protesters, and as is usually the case in Miami during these altercations, the two groups shouted and taunted each other.
What is truly interesting about this protest event is that the characters who showed up to protest any further restrictions on travel to Cuba from the U.S. were a veritable who’s who of Miami business owners and advocates who make a considerable amount of money doing business with the Castro regime through travel to Cuba. Escorting them you had what looked like an assortment of mules who make a living traveling to Cuba several times a year with consumer goods, which they sell to Cuba’s residents at exorbitantly high prices, taking advantage of an enslaved clientele with few other options.
The protest letter was delivered by Rosa Reyes, the leader of the Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Family, which bills itself as a Christian organization concerned with the Cuban family. It is apparent, however, that the group is not too concerned with the Cuban families of the murdered Brothers to the Rescue pilots. In January of this year, Ms. Reyes’ organization joined other pro-Castro groups in a caravan through the streets of Westchester to protest the imprisonment of the Cuban 5.
Joining Reyes you had dubious characters such as Edmundo Garcia and Elena Freyre. But one unknown man from the ranks of the protestors turned yesterday’s protest event into the Revenge of the Mules. Wearing a t-shirt that said ironically “For the Family,” this man was able to personify the mood and character of the protest perfectly when he sucker-punched a counter protester while the cameras were rolling.
Telemundo’s local affiliate, channel 51, was there to capture the bucking mule:
And at Manuel Priedes’ blog, Villa Granadillo, you have more video coverage and photographs of yesterday’s Revenge of the Mules.
This is deeply disgraceful and shameful, but of course they don’t care. It’s mostly about business or “do whatever you please and to hell with Cuba,” not about dignity. And yes, at least technically, these people are Cubans, and they may well be representative of the majority of people on the island now. Half a century of totalitarian toxicity is a very long time, and it is inevitably pathological, just like living in a highly radioactive and contaminated environment for years. This protest is as much about “family values” as getting Elián González back in Cuba was about reuniting him with his biological father. It’s a great pretext and cover, but there’s a WHOLE lot more involved that’s far less presentable, not to say inadmissible.
This is a good example of one big reason why non-Cubans don’t take us or our cause seriously: too many Cubans clearly are NOT serious and are just as clearly part of the problem, regardless of lip service to the contrary (assuming there’s even lip service, since many of these people are avowedly “apolitical,” and not a few scorn true exiles, as opposed to Mexican-style immigrants). VERY depressing.
Troops and Secret police to Venezuela–Mulas to Miami. It’s a toss up which exports are more vital to the regime nowadays…
Unreal